American elm

[Tommyo7]

We have a lot of elm on our farm mostly dying after reaching a foot or less at the butt. (Endless supply of dry wood) We do have a couple of trees, however, that are really big beautiful classic elms that seem quite healthy. Is there any way of knowing if they are truly resistant trees?

[beenthere]

Tommyo7
Welcome to the Forestry Forum. 

"truly resistant" ?  Prolly not, but so far so good. 

Are you trying to make a decision based on "truly" or "so far so good" ?

[Walnut Beast]

Same here on the dying elms all sizes and some very big ones!  Great and beautiful wood.

[Otis1]

I believe the USFS has a "survivor" elm website for reporting large healthy elm.

[beenthere]

Survivor Elm

[SwampDonkey]

Used to be some big ones on the farms around here, all gone now. One was 48" across, not in a field but woods and it's crown was dominant over the top of surrounding woods. Still lots of smaller ones in the woods around here. People like to see them in yards and fields but don't have much use for the wood. Around here it's not even used for firewood. It was once used to make wall panelling. We used some 45 years ago in the living room of the old farm house.

[PoginyHill]

Elm was a common veneer species when it was available in abundance. Much likely went into wall paneling as SwampDonkey mentioned. My father said it was common to use elm as the flooring of animal stalls, because the surface never becomes slick - wearing it produces more stringy wood and a good surface for animals to walk on without slipping.

[SwampDonkey]

I know it was used in flooring under work horses, they paw a lot. And I forget the preferred wood for their troughs because they like to chew.

[Jeff]

In my witness, up here in da U.P., large living American Elm are simply lucky, not resistant. There have been many very large elms between here and pickford. Individually Isolated trees, dotted in the middle of expansive hay fields. I've admired them for 25 years, by the unmistakable form, but every year you see large branches on another tree dead that were not dead years before, then within 3 years, the huge dead trees that then stand for years. You do see younger trees growing, and thriving, and then gone. Dutch elm disease seems to be a wandering indiscriminate beast.

[Ron Wenrich]

Would this classify as a large American elm?



 

Penn State has quite a few on campus, 290 to be exact (2008).  However, they've been dying off.  They've spent megabucks to try and stop the Dutch elm disease.  But the elm yellows is what is doing them in now. 

They've come to the decision to actually mill the trees and make furniture, diploma frames and the like. Its and idea I had 15 yrs ago.  I knew someone who worked in maintenance and he said they were burying the dead trees.  I asked if he could find out if someone could buy them.  I guess it went to higher ups, and they decided to do it on there own. 

[moodnacreek]

They die suddenly and stain the sapwood. The lumber is beautiful but hard to handle. It is very hard to sell this lumber as no one knows it.

[Walnut Beast]

 
Looks better than it smells 😂
 

[SwampDonkey]

The city of Fredericton, N.B. has a program in place to preserve their elms and even plant resistant elms to replace old dead ones. The resistant ones aren't native. At one time they managed 7000 elms in the city, now down to 1000. They now use a tree vaccine called DutchTrig, it doesn't treat the disease, it prevents infection. That is by request of tree owners and they pay for it. But since trees grow new outer wood the treatment has to be annual. Going by 2019 figures, it's about $150 bucks a shot.

[thecfarm]

Tommyo7,Just want to welcome you to the forum.
I have one elm tree on 150 acres.
I don't think there was ever many on this land. Been in the family since about 1930.
They lived about a mile away before that.

[Clark]

...The resistant ones aren't native....

There are resistant elm cultivars, both native Ulmus americana and various hybrids of American elm, European and Asian elms. Jefferson, Lewis and Clark (AKA Prairie Expedition), Princeton or St. Croix are all true American elms that have been propagated off resistant trees. The degree of resistance depends on many things but they aren't immune to DED.

Accolade, Discovery and Triumph are examples of crosses between different elms. Sometimes American elm is in the mix, sometimes not. Sometime they aren't entirely sure what the parentage is! Generally these have better resistance (possibly immunity) to DED but the trees don't attain the stature and rarely the form of American elm.

Clark

[SwampDonkey]

The resistance ones in the city aren't native. Not saying there aren't known native ones out there. Many you suggest probably wouldn't survive NB's climate anyway.

[kantuckid]

On our land we have a very few Red Elms. I did saw one up some years ago and the wood was a beautiful color and dried well. I have never worked it up into something but envision a small dresser or similar. It was dead and lying across a gap with the bark having fallen off. I mistook it for a walnut until I'd pulled it up to buck the tree. 
I grew up in Topeka, KS, then called "The City of Elms". There were other towns that planted them but Topeka had many. When they began dying from Dutch Elm disease, in the early 1950's is my guess, I was in upper grade school and remember the city placing sticky paper bands on trees as one means to save them. They were along the street edges all over town and many/most were similar size to the PA picture with the lady seen above. I can recall what I'll call Elm graveyards where the city hauled them off. Most were growing in the narrow strips between a sidewalk and street curbing and not the property owners responsibility. Some sidewalks were city, some were property owner there.  
I doubt cities back then employed full time foresters as has become more common in urban areas. My closest city now, Lexington, KY has one. They banned the planting of Bradford Pears there several years ago as one sort of result from having a professional in a city to assist such decisions.  
 

[Ron Scott]

The Buckley Elm still lives on as far as I know.
The Buckley Elm in General Board (forestryforum.com)

[John Mc]

I planted a couple of Princeton Elms (a resistant American Elm) about 10 or 11 years ago. Home Depot was having a clearance sale - they had brought some in for their disease resistance, but no one was buying them. At the time I bought them they were probably 1" caliper or less and would fit in our minivan. They are now 65+ feet tall and 12+" DBH. Both are healthy and making a great shade tree for the yard.

[Sauna freak]

Elm makes very interesting lumber.  I live in a Circa 1900 farmhouse, and local roughsawn lumber, predominantly Red and American elm was used throughout for framing, subfloor and sheathing.  Some of the sheathing and roof decking boards are over 18" wide!  If you have to pull a nail, grab the sawzall.  If you have to drive a nail or screw, better pilot hole it! I did a remodel on one room, and saved some of the wood.  Cut to form on a table saw, float sanded to retain the old circular saw marks, and oil finished, it made beatiful trim for the knotty cedar I used for wall covering. It was also used extensively for utility lumber in barns, and as utility flooring as noted above for it's wear resistance and traction properties. It is resistant to cribbing by horses, but not as good as Tamarack.  The old timers case hardened it in a fire while green for this purpose.  I did this with my Grandpa when I was young.  Was a thrill to see him fire up the old, dangerous, PTO driven sawmill! It also makes very good structural posts and beams and was often used for this purpose locally.  A 36' 8x12" beam, likely Red Elm, holds up the center of my house!  I am in about the heart of historic prime Elm range, on the NW end of "The Big Woods."  I've noted numerous remnant elms, both Red and American surviving in stands that were previously decimated by DE disease at least once, sometimes twice or more as evidenced by the snags and rotted deadfall.  I have to believe those are resistant trees.

[SwampDonkey]

Here's that huge one I mentioned earlier. The lot was clear cut and the tree died of shell shock (sun scald). It towered over all the other forest trees, you could easily see it a mile away from the road.









I've got lots of small elms on my land, they seem to grow near cedars and balm mostly. They all pretty much die after about pole size, might get 8".

[Walnut Beast]

Elm is very nice and beautiful if it behaves! Some funky smells from a barnyard to dead animal 😂. At least from my place. That is interesting about trees not affected. Through my woods were elm and ash have been decimated there are unaffected ones around dead ones everywhere. 

[Walnut Beast]

That's to bad SwampDonkey it was a beauty! I bet the shock you say may have happened to my monster Elm

[Walnut Beast]

Survivor Elm

Thanks for posting that! 

[Walnut Beast]

SwampDonkey there were other dead ones around my biggest monster elm that seemed to be living fine but had some dead branches but may have been on the way down. When I had a mulching demo in the spring we were near this tree mulching some dead ones and I thought it would help things but maybe it stressed it. Because when things bloomed out and things were greening up I was shocked and sad it was dead as a door nail. It's on the hit list.  I'm not going to let this one go to waste! It's going to be some slabs and other stuff